Excavating the Remains of Empire: War and Postimperial Trauma in the Twentieth-Century Novel
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University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Fall 2002 Excavating the remains of empire: War and postimperial trauma in the twentieth-century novel Elizabeth J. Andersen University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Andersen, Elizabeth J., "Excavating the remains of empire: War and postimperial trauma in the twentieth- century novel" (2002). Doctoral Dissertations. 87. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/87 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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Higher quality 6" x 9* black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. EXCAVATING THE REMAINS OF EMPIRE: WAR AND POSTIMPERIAL TRAUMA IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY NOVEL BY ELIZABETH ANDERSEN A.B. Bowdoin College, 1990 M.A. University of New Hampshire, 1995 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English September, 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3057247 Copyright 2002 by Andersen, Elizabeth J All rights reserved. ___ __ ® UMI UMI Microform 3057247 Copyright 2002 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED c 2002 Elizabeth Andersen Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. -- yAcfip Dissertation Di or, Sandhya Shetty^r Associate Professor of English Jao« E. Aikins, Professor of English Elizabeth Jane Bellamy Professor of English Robin M. Hackett, Assistant Professor of English Mary E. Rhiel, Associate Professor of German o r Dati Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................v CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 1 II. “KNITTING TOGETHER EVERYTHING & ENDING ON THREE NOTES”: 2 BECOMES 3 IN VIRGINIA WOOLFS MRS DALLOW AY..........53 III. EMPIRE, REVISED IN PAT BARKER’S REGENERATION TRILOGY.........100 Empire, Revised .............................................................................................................108 Empire, Abroad..............................................................................................................130 Empire at Home .............................................................................................................150 IV. “THE GREAT ADVENTURE INTO NOWHERE”: POSTIMPERIAL TRAUMA AND THE NEW PASSAGE EAST IN MARGARET DRABBLE’S THE GATES OF IVORY............................................................. 167 Trauma.......................................................................................................................... 177 Women..........................................................................................................................205 Literature....................................................................................................................... 215 V. “THE THEATRE OF WAR” VS. “MEMORIES OF RIOTS” IN TWO NOVELS BY AMITAV GHOSH......................................................................236 VI. CONCLUSION..................................................................................................290 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................305 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT EXCAVATING THE REMAINS OF EMPIRE: WAR AND POSTIMPERIAL TRAUMA IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY NOVEL by Elizabeth Andersen University of New Hampshire, September, 2002 In “’’Excavating the Remains of Empire: War and Postimperial Trauma in the Twentieth-Century Novel,” I investigate the implications of the residual presence of empire in the contemporary novel set in England, by questioning that if it is generally accepted that in the age of imperialism novels co-produced empire, what do they now, in this historical moment of the late twentieth-century, produce in its stead? Do shame and nostalgia for empire and the trauma of empire’s dissolution coexist in the postimperial, postwar novel? I use war as the key point of entry into the empire and novel connection, and claim that war operates in the novel on three essential fronts: as resulting from and encoding imperial tensions, as the traumatic event which magnifies empire’s dissolution, and as the only acceptable model for a nation in crisis. Because war both results from and encodes imperial tensions, and novels are so often the battleground on which these imperial tensions wrestle for signification and reformulation, then war in novels can serve as the double lens which magnifies the residual workings of empire and the novel. I begin with Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalbway, and claim that in it she reveals the limitations of the binaries of war and empire, while also portraying the anxieties regarding empire that have been raised by the First World War; I show how Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy incorporates these two aspects as well, yet also furthers the connection between war and empire by using war to work out the traumas caused by v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. empire’s loss; I claim that Margaret Drabble has a similar project in The Gates o f Ivory, in which she too explicates this traumatic loss of cultural identity resulting from the end of empire; and then I proceed to an examination of how Amitav Ghosh shows the restrictions of war as the narrative of a nation in The Shadow Lines, while also proving war to itself be a significant means of empire’s perpetuation. Despite the fact that the British Empire has been officially dismantled, imperialism and the novel are still inter connected. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION When the sun at long last began to set on the British Empire, it also left dark certain key connections between empire and the novel. In the following study, I investigate the implications of this residual presence of empire in the twentieth-century novel set in England. The significance of empire to the nineteenth-century novel has been thoroughly researched and analyzed, with studies such as Edward Said’s Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism leading the way; Said’s reading of Jane Austen’sMansfield Park, for example, in which he establishes how Austen “synchronizes domestic with international authority,” shows how the pervasive, if understated, imperialist references in the nineteenth-century novel are crucial to the creation and depiction of a seemingly provincial England (87). If it is generally accepted that in the age of imperialism novels co-produced empire, what do they now, in the historical moment of the late twentieth-century, produce in its stead? Do shame and nostalgia for empire and the trauma of empire’s dissolution coexist in the postimperial, postwar novel? To answer these questions, I examine the function and representation of the critical